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The Presence (Quest)
The Presence is a quest given by Shaper Rawal, one of the first quests you will pick up, and the only way to leave the area of the Whitespires. Quest Text The Foundry is being plagued by a strange creature, currently called the Presence for lack of a better name. Shaper Rawal has tasked you to hunt it down and, if possible, destroy it. He has given you a crystal that should glow when near the Presence. He also suggested that you begin your hunt in the Foundry Core, which is at the north end of the Foundry. Walkthrough Shaper Rawal gives you a Scrying Crystal, which will glow dimly whenever in the zone the Presence is in, and will increase in brightness (described in text only) the closer you get to the presence inside the zone. There are three main zones The Presence will appear in: Foundry Core West, Foundry Core, and Foundry Core East. First thing to do is train up. Sell whatever you can and pick up shaping or magic spells depending on your class. Second, enter the Foundry through Foundry Core West, by entering the door just past Guardian Manola's training hall. The Presence is not found inside the Foundry Core West just yet. You'll need to make your way through this zone to the Foundry Core, and from there, Foundry Core East. The Presence is here, and he wants to test you. But wait! Before you go to the Foundry Core East, take a moment to explore the south end of the Foundry Core. You won't be able to get past the Burning Turrets yet, but the south center of the zone contains the Green Spotted Fyora, the target of a quest in Minallah given by Captain Valenta (Mad, Flaming Fyora). Make sure to daze the fyoras that he keeps with him. Head east through the zone to the exit, but before taking it, divert north into the hospital. Once you enter the back area, a wall will open up near the entrance to the bay and out will pour a bunch of beetles. Kill them to loot your Coated Cloak. Now you're free to move onto Foundry Core East to begin the quest. Upon entering, you'll come across your first enemies, just a few bugs. Kill them quickly and keep moving. You'll come across the first door, but it won't open. The second door won't open either, but you can see through a crack in the wall...to spy a Fyora that appears to have some mental issues. The Presence is inhabiting it! If you continue moving east you'll come across the south exit, which leads to the Foundry Promenade and the east exit, which leads to the Foundry Repository. Don't both with either just yet. Instead, approach the third and final door and after reading the quest text, press 2 to go through the door and meet your first test. First Test The first test is pretty easy. You can either kill the fyoras just inside the door for easy experience points or you can "stealth" past them by hugging the east wall. Either choice leads to the same area, though killing them nets you a Lovely Crystal and some coins, both of which can go a long way towards your next spell or creation. The next area of the first test is a test of your mechanics skill as you will need to disarm some traps of level 4 and 5. If you don't have enough skill, you can explode the traps to fight the creations they release. Continuing on will also open a room with powerful wards surrounding the southern door. You will need a mechanics skill of 6 to turn them off. If you don't have it, that's fine - just continue on to the west, ignoring this room. The final room of the testing area is filled with power spirals and pillars. If you have a mechanics skill of 5, you can deactivate all of the power spirals which will turn off the pillars. If you don't, you can make them explode (but run fast!) to achieve the same results. Alternately, for experience, you can trip each pillar to open up 3 - 4 alcoves that each contain one enemy, a mix of artila, thahds, and fyoras. At the southwestern end of the room is your first real treasure: a bunch of crystals and a Canister, the Canister of Wrack. Once you've exalted enough in your rewards so far, make your way east, unlocking the first door if you wish. You'll enter the final chamber, meeting The Presence's first host, a Fyora. He is pretty simple to beat. Daze his first set of spawns; if they aren't killed and don't move, he won't spawn more. From there, just nuke him down. Counter his Wrack with your own War Blessing and hack away. Once he's down, you can leave the zone and move back through the core to Foundry Core West. Before you go, pick up your Wand of Weakness and Iron Shield that he leaves behind. Second Test Now that you're back in the Foundry Core East, make your way up the east side of the zone. You're welcome to explore the entire zone for useful coins, crystals, and rogue creations (nothing you can't handle by now), but your first test will be found behind door at the northeast edge of the zone. Like in the Foundry Core East, he is eager to test you and he won't disappoint with this one. Enter the trap, *ahem*, test, and move fast. The test consists of four clawbugs that are being created on the platforms, one for each. It takes about 8 rounds to create one, and they are created in parallel, counter-clockwise. Haste yourself with a pod and rush the clawbug closest to the door, killing it as quickly as possible before moving to the next. Depending on your number of creations, it is possible to kill all four without them becoming active, but be prepared for at least one or two to come to life. They'll deal only melee damage, so some minor healing and a Protection spell is useful. Once all four clawbugs are dead, move through the 2nd door to the south to continue. The first lever and door open the cells and is entirely optional. The second lever, found around the back of the room, opens the door on the opposite size of the zone, where The Presence has fled to. Pull the lever, and run back through the zone to the northwest-most door and enter. The Presence has taken control of a Servant Mind and cannot be directly attacked for any appreciable damage. Instead, you will need to control and destroy the three waves of creations the Presence will summon. Each summoning will weaken the host until he loses control and can be attacked. Mop up the rest of the creations (or keep them controlled with Daze) and burn the Servant Mind down as quickly as possible. He has a thorn shield that will damage melee attackers, will slow you with a powerful attack, and will terrify your creations. Once he's dead, pick up your Thorny Chitin, a shield, and your first bag of sports, Chaotic Spores. Now that The Presence is banished again, feel free to return to the Foundry Core to face the third test. Final Test Remember those Burning Turrets? They're not so strong now, and better yet, with Leadership of 5, you can control them! Follow the path around, fighting (or controlling) the turrets until you find yourself facing yet another door, this one locked with a key. Sadly, The Presence seems to have learned from the last two encounters and is unwilling to invite you in. You'll need to find the key, which is, conveniently, in the storeroom just to the south of the door, on the body of a shaper in the corner. You can either sneak in and turn on the pacification pylon with a high mechanics skill (6) or just kill the rogues in the room. Once you have the key, return to the door and face The Presence for the final time. The final fight is pretty straighforward. First, don't engage the Presence. Just run past him and through the open area to the south. Like with the Servant Mind in the Foundry Core West, you can't damage him effectively at the start of the fight. Instead, you need to...grow. In that room to the south is a Geneforge, upon which being used will both grant you the ability to damage the Presence as well as increase your Intelligence by 1. Now that you can damage him, there are two paths to defeating The Presence: Path 1 Just fight him head on, using Speed Pods to counteract his slowing and War Blessing to overcome curses. Path 2 If you were paying attention during your run south you might have noticed two pylons and a box connecting them. Turn the box on (1 Living Tool with a mechanics skill of 5) to activate the pylons and lure The Presence into the room with you. Both pylons will fight on your side, greatly simplfying the battle. Once he's dead, loot your Heavy Chitin Armor and Grounded Shoes. Return to Shaper Rawal for your final reward from the quest: increasing your skill points in Searer, Create Roamer, and Essence Shield by 1 each. He will then give you the next quest in the main quest line: The Shadow Road. Rewards You will pick up a lot of crystals that can be sold for a great deal of coins towards your next spells or creations. *Grounded Boots *Heavy Chitin Armor *Wand of Weakness *Venom Baton *Nimble Sandals, dropped from the Second Test *Canister of Wrack Notes Appears In Geneforge 5 Category:Quests Category:Geneforge 5